17 hours ago, jacko45k said:

But not a single one worth keeping?

 

I keep more than one.

17 hours ago, VillageIdiot said:

Exceptionally good post.

It's in stark contrast to the clueless drivel that dominates this thread.

Your own experiences are shared - to one extent or another - by most of us who were here before the economic boom and mass-tourism of the 1980's that changed Thailand out of recognition.

One point you didn't make about marrying and settling down here is the importance of learning Thai.

Living in a country and not speaking the language and being functionally literate is like being deaf, dumb, and blind once you leave the tourist ghettos. You just don't know what's going on around you.

Some people seem to be born with an aptitude for learning languages... I wasn't, but I overcame it to learn Thai because I didn't want my wife and children to see me as an illiterate who couldn't speak the language. I would have been a lasting embarrassment to them all.

That's a piece of advice that should be seriously considered by anyono planning to make Thailand - or any foreign country - their new home.

 

Good point.

The OP has a big advantage if he is only in his thirties.

Most farangs come here too late in life.

Too late to master the language and attain some degree of literacy.

Too late to attract anything but a mercenary woman and become the cash-cow for her low-life family.

Thais of the better sort take care of their own and that would include a farang who has lived among them for a long time as a husband and father.

Family means everything here. Your position in the family defines who you are.

Without one you are nobody.

Farang tao-nahn eng.